Stanford
recycling program wins top national award

The
campus recycling program has been named the top
school program in the nation for 2002 by the National
Recycling Coalition. Along with Stanford, the
coalition, a nonprofit organization based in
Washington, D.C., honored seven individuals,
communities and businesses nationally for
contributions to recycling and waste reduction
efforts.

Last
year, 11,300 tons of waste that otherwise would have
gone to local landfills was recycled by the campus
community, said Julie Muir, community relations
manager for Peninsula Sanitary Service Inc. (PSSI).
The private company, which serves only Stanford, took
over a student-run recycling program in 1991. The
percentage of waste diverted from landfills has risen
from 31 percent in 1994 to 53 percent in 2001, said
Muir.

The
recycling program is notable for its
comprehensiveness, Muir said. Along with paper,
bottles and cans, PSSI recycles scrap metal, plastic
bags and electronic equipment, as well as wood,
concrete, asphalt and drywall from campus demolition
and construction projects. The company works with the
Grounds Department in Facilities Operations to grind
tree branches, brush and logs into chips for mulch
and to collect landscaping waste for composting.
"We even compost the manure from the horse barn.
Mushroom farmers love it," Muir said. A program
to recycle kitchen waste is in the works, she added.

Muir and
grounds manager Herb Fong accepted the award for
Stanford at a ceremony in Austin, Texas, in
September. Although Muir is pleased that the program
has been recognized, there's room for improvement,
she said.

"There
are still paper, bottles and cans going into the
garbage. The infrastructure is there for everybody to
recycle. Now people just need to put things in the
right bins."